Ambassador

WASHINGTON -- President Bush finds himself in a strengthened position to direct the course of an unpopular war after two days of congressional testimony by the top military general and the U.S. ambassador in Iraq. The sober reports from Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker provided Bush with some breathing room, analysts said, by giving antiwar members of Congress little new material with which to build a consensus for change. "I thought [Petraeus'] demeanor, along with his chest of medals, really bought all the time that George W. Bush needs right now," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iran's ambassador to Iraq outlined his country's ambitious plan yesterday to greatly expand economic and military ties with Iraq - including an Iranian national bank branch in the heart of the capital - that will almost certainly bring Iran into further conflict with U.S. military forces that have detained a number of Iranian operatives here in recent weeks. The ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, said Iran is prepared to offer Iraqi forces training, equipment and advisers for what he called "the security fight."

WASHINGTON -- Only four months after impeachment apparently left Bill Clinton the lamest of lame ducks, the president stands alone in Washington as the only political leader with real star power and a track record of success that has been burnished by triumph abroad and legislative victories at home.He has prevailed in Kosovo, his most daunting foreign policy challenge; his gun control proposals have captured the public's support and thrown Congress into chaos; his brief campaign against Hollywood violence scored an early victory last week; and his seventh-year poll ratings exceed Ronald Reagan's and are on par with those of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the only other post-World War II presidents to serve two full terms.

BIGOTRY among public officials is shocking. But that's the only way to explain why five Republican senators blocked the appointment of James C. Hormel as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg for a year and a half.It wasn't that Mr. Hormel lacked qualifications. He's a former dean of the prestigious University of Chicago Law School. No, Mr. Hormel's "sin," in the eyes of Majority Leader Trent Lott and four other Republicans, was his sexual orientation: He's openly gay.That didn't bother the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which approved the Hormel nomination, 16-2.

After 14 months of working behind the scenes to improve the way the Columbia Association operates, President Deborah O. McCarty will increase the time she spends in the public arena as the city's "ambassador."The shift comes in part at the recommendation of the Management Appraisal Committee, a four-member panel of the Columbia Council evaluating her performance, and in part because McCarty thinks it is time to branch out.She plans to start attending more community meetings, accepting more speaking engagements and trying to become a more recognizable presence in the city of 87,000.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's appointment of a gay philanthropist as ambassador to Luxembourg has given the conservatives in the Republican Party still another opportunity to demonstrate to the American people just how extreme they can be.Once again they are playing to their political base at the possible expense of support among more moderate Republicans and independents who support equal rights for homosexuals.The issue has been brought into focus by Sen. James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, who has announced that he will use one of those peculiar senatorial privileges to deny Senate confirmation to all civilian nominations by Mr. Clinton for the indefinite future.

WASHINGTON -- It is a normally quiet corner of the city, an enclave of wealth and prestige whose winding, leafy lanes are home to foreign ambassadors and other members of the capital's upper crust.It is also home, however, to some ghosts from an antique age, and it's taking more than $25 million and the combined efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city to exorcise them.Beneath the green lawns and ornamental gardens of the South Korean ambassador's back yard lies a burial pit for World War I-era chemical weapons and munitions.

An article published in The Sun on Dec. 27 incorrectly reported that Marc Ginsberg finished serving as U.S. ambassador to Morocco in 1996. He completed his term in 1998.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 1/06/99

Lee Hong-koo, South Korea's former prime minister and current ambassador to the United States, will speak tonight at the Johns Hopkins University on the balance of power in East Asia.The talk, at 8 p.m. in Shriver Hall on the Homewood campus, is part of the school's student-run Symposium on Foreign Affairs, "Approaching the Millennium: The Changing Parameters of the International System."Other speakers in the series include former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Feb. 20 and Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi on March 10.Pub Date: 2/10/99

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has ordered his staff to take a "second look" at the nomination of Richard C. Holbrooke to be United Nations ambassador to determine if the veteran diplomat is fit for the post, the senator's office said yesterday.The "second look" by the Mississippi Republican could mean additional delays in the long-stalled nomination.And while the senator's staff said again that Lott expected Holbrooke to be confirmed eventually, the statement yesterday carried an implicit threat that the senator might still use his powers as majority leader to kill the nomination.

RICHARD EGAN, 73 Former U.S. ambassador to Ireland Richard Egan, who rose from street kid to the U.S. ambassador to Ireland after making millions of dollars founding data storage giant EMC Corp., has died. He was 73. Egan, who was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in May, died at his Boston home, his family said in a statement Friday night. The family said Egan also suffered from emphysema, diabetes and high blood pressure. Egan was an electrical engineer and a former U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot who worked at Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and Intel before he co-founded data storage technology provider EMC in 1979.

BAGHDAD - -Iraq has appealed to Iran to free three American hikers after concluding that the trio who apparently strayed across the Iranian border were just lost tourists, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday. Zebari said he had no reason to believe the three would soon be freed and had heard no word from the Iranians since making the request last week during a meeting with Iran's ambassador to Iraq But he hoped for an answer in the coming days, the foreign minister said. Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 30, and Josh Fattal, 27, have been in Iranian custody since they crossed into Iran on July 31 while hiking through a scenic mountainous area of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region.

Baltimore's historic Ambassador Theater at 4604 Liberty Heights Ave., a "sister theater" to the Senator Theatre at 5904-06 York Road, failed to draw a buyer after owner Larry Gaston Enterprises put it up for auction Thursday. The sale by Auction Brokers of Baltimore drew more than a dozen people, and bidding started at $100,000. When no one would bid higher than $120,000 for the Howard Park property, the auctioneers said the owner was unwilling to sell it at that price and ended the auction without a sale.

CHERIF GUELLAL, 76 Algerian resistance fighter and diplomat Cherif Guellal, an Algerian resistance fighter, businessman and diplomat who cut a glamorous figure in Washington society and was the longtime companion of a former Miss America, died of leukemia April 7 at a hospital in Algiers. Mr. Guellal was a veteran of the bloody independence movement that in 1962 secured freedom for his north African country from French rule. After serving as a top lieutenant to Ahmed Ben Bella, the rebel leader-turned-president, Mr. Guellal arrived in Washington as post-colonial Algeria's first ambassador to the United States.

Kinnard to head joint unit Howard County General Hospital has announced the appointment of Dr. Richard D. Kinnard Sr. as medical director of the HCGH Joint Academy. Kinnard received his medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. He served his internship in general surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and his residency in orthopedic surgery at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He completed a fellowship in sports medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, and he is a member of Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland.

It's not easy waiting in line outside in the rain or snow or cold, trying to get some services. I understand how it is to be treated with no respect because you look a certain way. I also understand there's hope. If I can change my life, I believe anybody can. -- Will Thomas, staff member, Paul's Place outreach center, Southwest Baltimore A cold rain is falling in Pigtown, a forever-poor part of Southwest Baltimore where recessions don't come and go; they just lessen and worsen. From the lunchroom at Paul's Place outreach center, huddled forms are visible on Ward Street - men and women trying to stay dry until the doors open for a free meal of beef-and-rice casserole.

Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song. Price said he has been annoyed that the two authors of the "I Like Ike" slogan have been more or less forgotten, and is determined to set the record straight. "The origin of the Irving Berlin 'I Like Ike' song dates back to a Broadway musical titled Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Merman with lyrics by Irving Berlin," wrote Price, who is finishing up his book, They Liked Ike, about Eisenhower's 1952 campaign.

ANNE ARMSTRONG, 80 Pioneering U.S. ambassador Anne Armstrong, a powerful Republican in the 1970s and 1980s who advocated a greater role for women and served as U.S. ambassador to Britain in the Ford administration, died yesterday. Ms. Armstrong had battled cancer and had been in a Houston hospice for about a week, said her assistant, Kay Hicks. She and her husband, Tobin, were Republican stalwarts. She was a national leader of the Republican Party and Cabinet-level adviser to presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.

YULI VORONTSOV, 78 Russian diplomat Yuli Vorontsov, who served the Soviet Union and Russia as ambassador to Afghanistan and the United States in a career spanning the Cold War and the Gulf War, died Wednesday in Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said. He also served as ambassador to the United Nations, France and India, and as the U.N. envoy overseeing the return or repatriation of the remains of Kuwaitis and others missing after the first Gulf War.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush finds himself in a strengthened position to direct the course of an unpopular war after two days of congressional testimony by the top military general and the U.S. ambassador in Iraq. The sober reports from Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker provided Bush with some breathing room, analysts said, by giving antiwar members of Congress little new material with which to build a consensus for change. "I thought [Petraeus'] demeanor, along with his chest of medals, really bought all the time that George W. Bush needs right now," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.